Former President George W. Bush acknowledges the cheers of the crowd during a time out in the first quarter during the Washington Redskins vs. the Dallas Cowboys NFL football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington on Thursday, November 22, 2012.

Former President George W. Bush — long one of the more outspoken Republicans in pushing an immigration overhaul — is teaming with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas next Tuesday to host a conference on immigration and economic growth.

Bush is slated to give opening remarks at the daylong conference organized by his namesake public policy think tank, the George W. Bush Institute. The event at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas will “spotlight the positive economic impact of immigration on U.S. economic growth,” according to a news release.

The conference will feature panels on “Immigrants and Economic Growth: The Evidence” and “CEOs: Immigrant Contributions to U.S. Business.” Among the experts will be Dallas Fed senior economist Pia Orrenius, who also wrote chapter about immigration and growth in the Bush Institute’s “The 4% Solution” book.

The event is invitation-only, with audience members including business leaders, scholars and students.

Democrats, meanwhile, continue to support passage of the DREAM Act, which would provide a clearer path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants. Obama also signed an executive order this year that lifted the threat of deportation for nearly a million such individuals.

The Bush Institute’s immigration and economic growth conference was planned well in advance of the presidential election and the subsequent flurry of immigration talk. And given George W. Bush’s desire to stay out of the “swamp” of politics, it’s unclear what exactly he will say in his remarks next week.

That’s especially true since Bush told the Washington Times in a 2009 exit interview that his biggest do-over would’ve been pushing immigration reform, rather than Social Security reform, after the 2004 election.

“I don´t see how you can have comprehensive border security without a program that recognizes that there will be people doing jobs Americans aren´t willing to do,” Bush told the Times. “And therefore there ought to be a way for them to temporarily come here on a verifiable basis in a way that would cause them not to have to sneak here or pay for a coyote or get stuffed into an 18-wheeler, or try to walk across the desert and die.”